Thomas Jefferson

Early Life 1743-1766

1766-1770, page 2

page 1 of 3

During his first years as a lawyer, Jefferson split time
between Williamsburg, the seat of his practice, and Shadwell, where
he re-established a base while supervising the construction of
his new estate, Monticello. He traveled widely throughout the
colony in pursuit of various cases, generally relating to land
claims and disputes between debtors and creditors. At times, Jefferson
relied on his law practice for up to half of his income, an unusually
high proportion for the gentleman lawyers of his day.

Before long, the call of public service began to intrude
upon his law practice. In 1769, just ten days shy of his twenty-sixth
birthday, he was named as representative of Albermarle County to
the lower chamber of the House of Burgesses, in fulfillment of
the lengthy Jefferson family line. Jefferson could hardly have
entered into the political scene at a time more fraught with foreboding.

For several years, tensions had been building between
the royal administration of the Virginia Commonwealth and the colonial membership
of the House of Burgesses. As the colonies began to become more
self-sufficient, the British looked to gain a more secure imperial
foothold on the American continent. The British won a great victory
to this effect in the Seven Years War, which established their
dominance over France along the Eastern Seaboard and shored up
their position inland up to the Mississippi River. However, such
success came at a cost, and the British government found itself
perilously close to bankruptcy.

Since the colonies had benefited from the British victory,
Parliament decided that they should help to finance the spoils
of peace. Thus, in 1765, by virtue of the Stamp Act, duties were
established on all minor business transactions in the colonies.
All revenue was to revert to Parliament with the intention of
maintaining Britains vast imperial network in America. At once,
King George III and Parliament were inundated with cries of protest
from the colonials, who had suffered import/export taxes in the
past, but never a tax on domestic goods produced and traded within
the colonies.

One of the strongest objections to the Stamp Act came
from the House of Burgesses, in the form of several indignant resolutions backed
by the revolutionary Patrick Henry. As a law student, Jefferson
had witnessed Henrys impassioned orations against British control
of American interests. A few short years later, he found himself
at Henrys side, plotting to undermine the increasingly harsh colonial
policies levied by King George III and Parliament.

The struggle to assert colonial rights was also a regional
struggle. Like Jefferson, Henry hailed from the Piedmont region,
and had no vested interest in the more conservative approach of
the Tidewater gentry. Whereas the wealthier members of the old
guard simply stomached new taxes, the new generation of frontier
legislators was less inclined to tolerate what they viewed as increasing
infringements on their liberty.